GraphLab Recommendations Startup Gets Venture Funding

By Dina Bass -
May 14, 2013

GraphLab Inc., which helps retailers
and Web-applications developers analyze data to provide customer
recommendations, received $6.75 million in a funding round led
by Madrona Venture Group LLC and New Enterprise Associates.

GraphLab’s so-called machine-learning systems extract and
analyze users’ interactions on social networks, the things they
buy and songs they listen to, Chief Executive Officer Carlos
Guestrin said. In the health-care industry, for example, the
data can be used to track which drugs are most effective for
different types of people, he said.

Guestrin was recruited last year by Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) CEO
Jeff Bezos to be the Amazon Professor of Machine Learning at the
University of Washington. The computer scientist started
GraphLab five years ago as an open-source project and will use
the new funds to start a commercial version. The investment is
the latest in the data-analysis and storage industries by
Seattle-based Madrona, which has also backed Isilon Systems Inc.
-- later acquired by EMC Corp. (EMC) -- and Qumulo Inc.

“Data about these kinds of relationships abound,”
Guestrin said in an interview. “There’s a real need for large-scale machine-learning analytics, and lots of companies have a
hard time hiring people with this expertise.”

The open-source version of GraphLab, which is available
free on the Internet, is used millions of times a day by
companies such as Internet-radio provider Pandora Media Inc. (P)Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT)’s WalmartLabs has also experimented with
it, Guestrin said.

As part of the investment agreement, Matt McIlwain of
Madrona and Greg Papadopoulos of NEA will join the GraphLab
board, the Seattle-based company said.